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Disney books kids' stuff from Zappa

Posted on: Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Borys Kit

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films won a bidding war to buy "The Monstrous Memoirs of a Mighty McFearless," an upcoming children's book by Ahmet Zappa.

The book follows a brother and sister who discover they belong to a family of legendary monster hunters and must journey to a far-off castle to rescue their father from the most fearsome monster of all. Zappa, a sometime actor and son of rocker Frank Zappa, also created illustrations for the more than 300 monsters named in the book.

The book, Zappa's first, began in 2003 as a recipe book for kids -- the recipes were for "antidotes" to ward off the monsters -- but Random House liked what it saw and asked for a chapter book. Random House will publish it in August.

According to sources, Disney and Bruckheimer beat out Warners, which was bidding for Heyday Films and Bueller Films, as well as Paramount, who was bidding for Plan B. Neither Paramount nor Warners responded to calls for comment.

Bruckheimer and Bruckheimer Films production president Chad Oman met with Zappa on Monday, with Zappa coming away feeling that, among the suitors, Bruckheimer would make the journey from page to screen the fastest.

Sources said the deal is in the seven figures.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Source: REUTERS

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